by Nicole Braun “How in the world can you have no savings? At one time in my life I made less than $20k a year and was still able to save 3 months of living expenses. True…the 4th month would’ve brought challenges but I was still able to save. People (especially the uneducated) live WAYYYY […]
Online Classism
Who should we REALLY be wary of?
The subject line said: “Tis the Season for Criminals”; then the body of the email, written in large threatening capital letters, said, “REMEMBER, DESPERATE PEOPLE DO DESPERATE THINGS, SO BE VERY WARY WHEN YOU ARE OUT IN PUBLIC……” What follows is my response, because I had this incredible experience this morning. A young repairman of […]
Remember When It Was Poster Board?: Computer Technologies and School Disadvantage
Remember when it was the poster board? I do. I remember my elementary school classmates—Russell, Missy, Jake—who could never afford it, who would raise their hands meekly, eyes downcast, when the teacher asked, “Who needs help getting poster board?” I pitied them and wondered what else they couldn’t afford: a pack of National Football League […]
A Dubious Milestone
Well, a goal of Class Action’s just took a step forward, though not exactly in the way we envisioned. The professional cheaters have recognized our cause! About five years ago, the Class Action board discussed setting concrete objectives to measure our progress towards getting classism into American public consciousness, which is one of our goals […]
Economists can’t be rapists? Hotel maids are lunatics?
In rushing to the defense of accused rapist and head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn, well-known conservative commentator Ben Stein has stooped to blatant classist stereotypes. His headline on the American Spectator website, “Presumed Innocent, Anyone?,” implies that he’s just asking for a fair trial before judgment – a reasonable point. But look […]
Responding to an anti-immigrant email
An old friend sent me an unbelievable poem, probably not realizing it would offend me. It was titled “Mexican Poem.” It starts like this: My first impulse was to write back and say right off the bat how racist and classist it is. But I thought that might not be well received if I started […]
Classed Relationships on the Internet
“Social class and the Internet” usually implies issues of access to high-speed Internet and newer computers. But recent online discussions have me reflecting on how my Facebook friends are divided clearly along class lines, in how we interact online. Class differences in dealing – or not dealing – with conflict show up starkly in my […]
